Really soon, you’re going to be tempted to come up with an excuse. Excuses cover up weaknesses, blunders, and offenses, which we all have. Some are genuinely committed without intent, but others tempt us to deliver well-crafted excuses to keep our inadequacies secret.
Do I ever get an excuse?
So if we’re all imperfect, shouldn’t we get an excuse every now and then?
- Like when I tried to tell the airline why I ordering a ticket for the wrong weekend
- Or when we’re down to our last roll of tp & last bite of cereal (not that those are related)
- Or like last week when our neighbor returned our (exhilarated, panting) bad, run-away dog
Excuses are akin to reasons, but reasons lead to confessions, while excuses avoid confessions.
Some time soon, you’re going to be asked for a reason (maybe even a confession?) and you’re going to squirm as you debate coming up with a close cousin to a reason = an excuse. I’m going to go ahead and save you some time. In thinking about how much we love to make excuses, I looked to God’s word to ask, “Do we legitimately have an excuse?” for not knowing or doing good?
We don’t.
We have no excuse
We have truthful reasons, but we don’t have responsibility-avoiding excuses. The truth is, we all have the opportunity to know God. Even those who haven’t received God’s word in their language have the chance to know Him. Creation makes God and His right ways clearly known to all people. Without access to the Bible, we’re left with questions, but all of creation makes it possible to know our Maker and His nature. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
What does that have to do with me and getting out of a traffic ticket or paying a bill late or snapping at my neighbor? When it comes to doing wrong and covering it, we have no excuse. If it was legitimately the fruit of ignorance, we wouldn’t try to cover it up. We would confess it and make it right once we recognized our wrong. We know what’s right.
God knows we are weak, we fail, and we are hopelessly lost in our sinful condition. There’s no excuse for ignoring the presence of God who is good and clean and majestic, who wants to know us and be known.
- Facing up to our ugly condition compared to God’s majestic person leads us to want to know Him.
- Making excuses prolongs life without God or makes us live distant from Him.
Still to come this month, we’ll find out what God’s word tells us to do in place of making up excuses. There is an alternative. Excuses can be hurtful, and there’s an answer to our nagging habit of making excuses. To begin with, God has given us all of creation to declare our Maker who wants to know us and cover over our weaknesses, blunders, and offenses for us.
God knows we have no excuse. Still, He waits for us and longs for us and provides a way for us to come to Him … without excuse.
